vB Easy Archive - Treo 650/Suncom & SIM services

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Treo 650/Suncom & SIM services
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Posted by: Ricoh Tek

I just purchased my Treo 650 from my carrier yesterday. My carrier is Suncom. For those that don't know, Suncom services Georgia, North & South Carolina, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.
To improve service reliability, Suncom farms out use of other carrier towers. This is included in my plan. The problem is that when you switch towers, the display shows the carriers name (Cingular, Verison, etc). On a regular cell phone that is no problem. On the 650 it causes a message window called "SIM Services" to pop up. In that display is the carrier name. It is quit common to switch towers 7 or 8 times in any given area. The pop up box has an "OK" key to close out the message but when there are multiple exchanges a new box pops up for each occurrence.
This creates a problem when using the PDA feature. I was in the middle of a hot sync today that was stalled by this pain in the @## feature.
Suncom tech support does not have a clue and Palm tech support says it's the carriers programming.
Does anyone know how I can turn this messaging off?
Many thanks
RT

Posted by: phillyslickster

Your problem has to do with SunCom--not the Treo 650 itself.

SunCom used to be in Virginia until the completion of the ATT Wireless/Cingular Wireless merger. No more SunCom in Virginia. I'm not sure how you will be able to get the help that you need with SunCom because that's the most UNKNOWLEDGABLE tech support team that I have I ever seen at a wireless company. I have known too many that complain about the services at SunCom.

All I can say is maybe if you call back again, you may get someone in tech support that knows what they're talking about.

I know that some friends had SunCom in Virginia and they would be on T-Mobile's network a lot. It was unreal. IMO it's best not to get service with those small companies like that. In some ways they offer good deals on service like the Unplan, but when there's a problem, they dont know how to assist you.

Posted by: ilvla2

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillyslickster

Your IMO it's best not to get service with those small companies like that. In some ways they offer good deals on service like the Unplan, but when there's a problem, they dont know how to assist you.

I have to disagree with that, Edge Wireless, the Cingular Affiliate/Network Member that provides GSM/GPRS/EDGE and TDMA service here in NorCal as well as in S OR, SE ID and W WY, has top notch customer care, and does as good, if not better than the big guys

They have the second best coverage in my market of Mendocino and Lake Counties (US Cellular is the best, Verizon is the last, and worst), my parents love them here! The only thing I don't like is their cs closes at 10 pm.

Posted by: phillyslickster

Maybe that's where you're located. I have been there and done that with SunCom and when I was in VA, I have tried all the carriers from the mom and pop carriers to the giants. The only one I didn't try was Verizon Wireless. I had my best coverage with Cingular and ATT Wireless, not only locally, but also when I travelled. Like I said, that's my opinion. I could tell you some stories about SunCom and some of the other small carriers that you might wouldn't believe unless you were there to witness it. All in all, it all boils down to what one is willing to pay for. As the old cliche' goes, "you get what you pay for"

Posted by: ilvla2

Edge is not Suncom by any means, they are far better

They were started in 1999 by three former AT&T Wireless Execs (Wayne Perry, Cal Cannon and Donnie Castleman, they were big wigs in the corporation), so they have the knowledge and experience to do it right. Edge even gets phones Cingular doesn't (like the 6170). I have heard bad stories about Suncom as well, I'm glad they don't have service here in the west.

This is their web site, if you're curious about them at all-

http://www.edgewireless.com

They are 40% owned by Cingular Wireless (formerly AT&T Wireless) and 60% privately held.

The carriers that have coverage here (in order of coverage) are US Cellular, Edge Wireless and Verizon Wireless. Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile, Nextel, Sprint PCS and Metro PCS are all licensed to operate here as well, but have never built out a network in this area. I doubt Cingular will, they'd probably just buy Edge out if they wanted to do that.

Posted by: phillyslickster

Wow!! I'm going to check that out. SunCom is so slimy that there's a lot of hidden stuff in the contract. I ordered online and never received any kind of contract nor verbally or expressed in any kind of way. I received the phone in the mail and slipped in the SIM and battery and the phone worked once I charged it. Yet, if one looks at the SunCom contract very very very closely, you'll find that once your contract term is over that the contract will renew itself for the same period that you initially enrolled. Also, in order to cancel your contract, you must give them a minimum of 30 days notice to cancel. I've NEVER known anyone to have to give a notice of 30 days before cancelling a cellular contract. There's many people who go into to SunCom to sign up for a contract and they don't even know that. They usually find out when they think that their contract is over and they want to switch to another carrier and find the contract has already renewed itself and they ahve to pay the ETF.

Posted by: ilvla2

Suncom should be renamed slimecom it sounds like! lol

Posted by: phillyslickster

You're right!! That's really SLIMEY!!!!

Posted by: phillyslickster

There used to be a weblink about this and some of their other practices. I'm not sure if it's still out there though.

Posted by: Ricoh Tek

Problem solved, SLIMEcom, as you call it; called me back on my HOME line and told me that they researched the problem. It seems that there was an issue with the treo and older versions of thier SIM cards.
The phone actually came with the correct version but the store rep put my SIM card in from my old GSM phone. The problem is fixed.
I consider that outstanding customer service for them to call me back at home. I have Alltel for a company phone, I wish their techsupport team had a clue and decent customer support.

Posted by: ilvla2

I'm glad they got it solved

, maybe Suncom is taking a few cues from Edge Wireless

Either way, it's good to hear they did a good job getting you all squared away

Posted by: professorhacker

To the Richo guy, all you need is a Ver. 3.0 Sim Card....any Suncom store should be able to GIVE you one free of charge to correct this problem

Posted by: marksat

Phillyslicker:

Hard to believe that SunCom still has an "evergreen" clause in their contract. A few juicy class-action suits against Cingular put an end to those with them and the other majors.
It is however, pretty standard for contracts to have a 30-day cancellation notice.

Posted by: phillyslickster

Cool... the first time that I had ever encountered that was via SunCom.